


Tired eyes, tired smiles

by bellofthetolppl



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, and clarke takes care of him, bellamy overworks himself, doctor!clarke, tired!bellamy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 16:30:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12039819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellofthetolppl/pseuds/bellofthetolppl
Summary: Bellarke modern AU where Bellamy overworks himself and Clarke intervenes one evening after he comes home from work.





	Tired eyes, tired smiles

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! This was written for the prompt: Character A is too tired/sleepy to even walk and character B helps them into their apartment and takes care of them.
> 
> Comments and kudos are much appreciated. You can also find me on [tumblr](http://jasperjoordan.tumblr.com/).

Bellamy Blake isn’t used to finding someone sitting on his doorstep, waiting for him to come home from work. And even if he did, the last person he expected to be there was Clarke, mainly because usually it was the other way around. 

Last year, he would sit in front of her house every time she came home from a night shift at the hospital and make sure she had dinner and got herself to bed. 

Internship was exhausting and she wouldn’t have survived it if it wasn’t for him. She often told him that he doesn’t have to do this, that she can take care of herself, but when she collapsed one day after a 30-hour shift and he wasn’t there to catch her, he made sure it never happened again. 

When he had to find a third job because his mom got sick and Octavia left away for college, he couldn’t do it all the time, even if they were neightbours. He still tried though, it wouldn’t be him if he didn’t.

But now, as he had just climbed the last of the stairs leading to the appartment he shared with his mom, his jaw dropped a little at the sight of her.

“What are you-” he took a deep breath ”doing here?” he asks as he finally reaches the floor and leans heavily on the railing. 

In all honesty, he wasn’t sure he could face Clarke Griffin right now, especially not with the angry expression she had on her face-that funny way of her crossing her arms on her chest and almost growling at him, always meant a fight was coming, but he just didn’t have the strength for it. He couldn’t remember the last time he had decent sleep and between all the work and the numerous extra shifts he had been taking, he felt like he could collapse on his bed and sleep for at least three days.

“Octavia called” yep, she almost scowled at him as she said that and he wished he had the will to smile ”She told me you took on a fourth job.” He closed his eyes for a second and swallowed hard ”She hasn’t heard from you in a few days and she called your mom.”

“She shouldn’t have bothered her, I’m fine” he waves away his hand as if it didn’t cost him everything to stand here and talk to her instead of heading inside and collapsing on the couch. 

That’s right, he didn’t even have a bed right now. Since his mom got sick, they had to sell the house and he rented a small apartment, that was still very close to the Griffin residence, but was significantly smaller and he settled his mom in the only bedroom available, promising he’ll buy a bed when he saves some money and find a place for it in the small living room. He still hadn’t got to that part though. The couch satisfied his needs and he didn’t want to spend money on himself when he could use them for medicine.

”My battery died this morning or I would’ve called back.”

“That’s not the point and you know it” she clenches her jaw and he swears she is so mad she could hit him, but he honestly can’t do this right now. His ribs hurt from the fall today, his whole body felt as if on fire, his head was heavy, his eyes were closing and his hands were trembling.

“I can’t do this now, Clarke” he shares his own thoughts as he grips the railing harder just to keep himself straight ”Maybe we can talk tomorrow?” he suggests.

“Oh, no mister we’re talking about it right-what the fuck, Bellamy!” he interrupts her speech when he tries to move towards his door but instead staggers and she catches him right before he falls. 

He ends up on his knees and leans heavily onto her. He feels her arm slide under his, her talking something and he tries to make sense of it but for a second there he blacks out. What brings him back is her firm grip on his shoulder.

”Bellamy! Bell! Come on, I’m here, come on!” when her body presses to his side and she tries to lift him up, he has to bite back a groan but he’s not really successful in it ”Fuck, what did you do to yourself!” he hears her curse ”Do you think you can walk or should I call Miller or-”

“No, I’m fine” he manages to let out as he takes a deep breath in. The last thing he needed was Miller nagging him too after he’s been practically doing it all day anyway ”Just give me a second” he doesn’t know how she keeps his body up, considering she’s a lot smaller and shorter than he is, but she doesn’t budge even once. He feels her fingers press to the side of his neck and he’s too tired to try and move away from her even if he groans in protest.

“Your heart’s racing” she announces and then presses her hand to his forehead but he quickly shakes her off ”Bellamy!” she scolds and he huffs.

“Let’s just…get inside” he begs and looks her in the eyes for the first time since he pathetically ended up in her arms ”Please.” at that she nods and they take a few steps towards his door before stopping again. 

They’re almost there but he needs to tell her something first.

”I don’t want my mom to know about this, okay?” he utters weakly and Clarke nods, even though he can see she disagrees with him by the way she furrows her eyebrows ”Or Octavia.” he adds and Clarke huffs displeased at this.

“Then who should know, Bellamy? Because you can’t keep taking care of everyone else and never let anyone do the same for you.” 

“I’m-”

“Oh don’t you dare say you’re fine, I’m pissed off as it is!” she cuts him off right when they make it to the door and she slowly, carefully opens it, though she doubts his mom could hear them from the other room. Clarke had talked to her earlier when she came by to wait for him, and had relieved Maya, the nurse who took care of her, so she knew everything was fine. 

What worries her is that Bellamy doesn’t even have enough strength to fight her. They would usually bicker about it or he would shower her with questions about his mom, but this time…this time his body is weakly slumped in hers, his breath is heavy and every time she pressed herself to his side, he had to bite his lips so he wouldn’t yell. He was exhausted, he must’ve overworked himself so bad, that he would need at least a few days to get back on track, if not a week.

“Couch” he begs when they make it inside and she nods.

“Almost there, Bell” she promises and pushes him to get there as fast as they can because she’s afraid if they don’t, he’ll just collapse in her hands and she won’t be able to move him on her own. When he finally sits in, she doesn’t let him lay down despite his protests.

”I have to check you up.” she tries explaining but his eyes are so drunk from pain and tiredness that she hates herself for doing it.

“Sleep” he begs and tries to fall on his pillow but she keeps him upright.

“Just a minute, I promise” she tells him as she sits down between him and the pillow so he wouldn’t fall down ”Arms up, come on!” she asks of him as she grabs the hem of his shirt and slowly takes it off. 

He barely manages to raise his hands, not really helping her in any way when he opens his eyes a little more due to her gasp at the sight of the big blue bruise on his ribs.

”Bellamy! What the hell happened?” her raised voice wakes him a bit more and he clears his throat.

“I kind of…fell while we were working” he says and hisses when her hand touches his ribs to check how serious it is ”It’s nothing though, I didn’t really get hurt, it’s just one hell of a bruise.”

“It’s not just a bruise, you’ve broken one of your ribs and the other two are cracked” she announces as she keeps applying pressure ”Did you see a doctor at all?” he shakes his head slowly ”Of course you didn’t.”

“I figured I could ask you” he lies and she shoots him a look of disbelief.

“You wouldn’t have looked for me even if you had internal bleeding, Bellamy, let’s be real.”

“Because you would make a big out of it and it’s just a bad bruise” he raises his voice too as he watches her stroll to the kitchen and come back with a bag of ice which she presses to his side. She finally pulls him down in a laying position and he sighs relieved as his head hits the pillow. 

“It’s not a bad bruise, it’s broken” she repeats and he can see she’s going back to being angry about it all ”Hold this!” she orders as she puts his hand over the ice bag and instead starts taking out stuff from her med bag that he didn’t even know she was carrying here. 

She measures his blood pressure and checks on his breathing, flashes a light in his eyes and checks his bad knee for any swelling (there is some of course) because she knows well enough he fucked up back when he was playing football in high school and it was still giving him trouble every now and then causing him to stagger and lose his balance more often than not especially when he overworked himself.

”How long has it been since you slept?” she asks and he opens up his tired eyes to find her massaging his knee ”And I mean decent, at least 8 hour sleep, Bellamy.”

“Sunday, I think” he decides to be honest because lying to her seemed to only piss her off ”I’ll be alright, I just need to catch up on my sleep, I promise” he tries and she stops working on his leg and looks at him for a second before taking out a few bandages from her bag. But he’s already seen the tears and worry there so he grabs her wrist ”Clarke?” he asks but she still doesn’t meet his eyes ”Clarke, come on, please. Everything will be alright.”

“Bellamy,” she sighs tired of his behavior ”How will it be alright? You’re twenty and you work four jobs. You take shifts at Raven’s garage, then spent the day working at Kane’s diner, after which you go to the bar and imagine my surprise when Octavia tells me you picked construction during the weekends. You’re going to kill yourself.” she says seriously ”Your body isn’t designed to operate on such a stressful schedule.”

“You’re one to talk!” he tries to switch the subject but she just shakes her head.

“I work one job, that yes, may be tiring and with long shifts but what you’re doing to yourself is more than long shifts. You don’t eat regularly, you don’t sleep more than three hours a day and you exhaust yourself to the point where you completely burn out.”

“Clarke-”

“No” she shakes her head ”Forget about fighting me, what about your mom? Do you know how worried she was about you when I came to see her today? She said you looked like a ghost last night when you came home.” he looks away as if ashamed at that.

”And Octavia? Do you know I haven’t heard her cry since she broke up with Atom which was freshman year of high school.” at that his eyes widen a little, he didn’t expect to hear that. “That’s right. She feels like it’s her fault.” he opens his mouth to protest at that but she’s faster “And Jasper and Monty? They haven’t seen you in a month, Bell, they miss you. Miller keeps going around saying you overwork yourself and never take a day off. All of us care, all of us are worried about you.”

“You shouldn’t be.” he tries again and covers her hand with his ”I just have to get used to this schedule and it will be fine” she shakes her head angrily at that and is about to fight him when he continues ”I don’t have a choice here, Clarke.” he raises his voice just a little ”My mom was prescribed new meds last week. I need to find a way to pay for all this.”

“And who’ll pay for you when you end up in a hospital because you fell off while working or god forbid got hit by something because you were almost asleep on your way home and not paying enough attention?”

“Clarke, come on, that’s not gonna-”

“Not gonna happen? Really?” she looks down at his bruised lips ”I think it already did, Bellamy.” he looks away again, staring instead at the ceiling and she sighs ”Have you thought what your mom would do if you get seriously injured? Or Octavia?” she swallows and picks up his chin, turning his head to her ”Or me?” she cups his face and brushes his cheek with her thumb. He uses his last strength to put his hand on her wrist and squeeze it lightly in a thankful gesture.

“I’ll try to take better care of myself, I promise” he says then and gives her a light smile. 

“Okay” she agrees. 

She doesn’t believe him for one bit, which is why she’s already talked to Miller and the gang and they’ve agreed to keep a close eye on him, make sure he has at least a day off during the week and bring him food or drive him when he’s too tired to do stuff himself. And she has promised herself that she’ll come by every evening for the following month. She had already arranged her shifts with Indra this morning. He wasn’t going to take care of himself, but they were.

”Come on now, I have to wrap your ribs” she carefully takes his hands in his and pulls him up in a sitting position. He’s so tired, he almost falls right back involuntary, but he somehow manages to stay like this while she finishes up the bandage. 

“Thank you, princess” he says quietly as she helps him lay down and covers him with a blanket ”You should go home now, it’s late.” he says worriedly.

“No, I’m staying” she starts putting her stuff back in her bag and stands up ”I want to keep an eye on you in case you got a concussion, your left pupil was slightly dilated.”

“I don’t have-”

“Bellamy!”

“Fine, alright.” he agrees as she puts away her stuff ”Is my mom okay? Is she resting?” he didn’t even get the chance to see her tonight and with regret he remembers that the last time he talked to her was early this morning when she was barely awake.

“She’s fine, I gave her the meds and she fell quickly after that.” she promises with a smile ”You should do so too. I’ll be right here, keep an eye on both of you.” he nods gratefully at that and he wishes he had the strength to lift his hand and put it over hers but right now it seems like an impossible task.

“You’ll wake me if she needs me, right?” he asks already closing his eyes. ”Promise?”

“I promise, Bell” he feels her fix the blanket one last time and brush away the curls from his forehead just to give him a kiss there ”Good night, you stubborn ass.”

“G’night, princess.” he mumbles barely audible as he feels himself drift off.


End file.
